Will Dave quit talking about openwheel?

[coolhand]

http://www.speedtv.com/commentary/18441/

[High Sided]

screw those boondock rubes :D

[pchall]

screw those boondock rubes :D

Typical Despain. He's becoming a televised version of Brock Yates, stuck in a blurry past and unable to see or learn anything new. But in the end it is all about himself. Remember the "meltdown" he faked to close the show at the end of the 2003 season when he was taking a lot of heat from disgruntled viewers who were on his case about being a NASCAR and IRL shill?

[spinner26]

If it ain't on two wheels this moron don't care. He only has four wheel racers on because he has too. :thumdown: Screw windbag, DD and the nascar network.

[theunions]

If it ain't on two wheels this moron don't care.

That's what I told a NASCAR-centric person (though not in such harsh terms) the other week who was spouting off about her hatred of Dave because he (paraphrasing) "always seemed (from his race coverage days to present) to look down on stock car racing and seemed like it wasn't good enough for him."

[Brickman]

http://www.speedtv.com/commentary/18441/


Dave is right. For the most part street circuits have been street circuses. When they are good they are very good, when they are bad, they stink. Vancouver lasted the longest of any poor racing track. The concept of street racing is good, but it has to be executed with a good layout, the right city, the right fan base and a very good event sponsor. However Dave was using mostly dated tracks to get his point across. The most recent successful tracks of St. Pete, Edmonton, Denver outweigh the Miami and Houston failures.

[Brickman]

http://www.speedtv.com/commentary/18441/

Dave is right. For the most part street circuits have been street circuses. When they are good they are very good, when they are bad, they stink. Vancouver lasted the longest of any poor racing track. The concept of street racing is good, but it has to be executed with a good layout, the right city, the right fan base and a very good event sponsor. However Dave was using mostly dated tracks to get his point across. The most recent successful tracks of St. Pete, Edmonton, Denver outweigh the Miami and Houston failures.

[Andrew Longman]

What Dave call silly or bad usually is silly or bad. When he pokes fun at Nascar it is usually on a point that I agree with.

When he talks about the stupidity that is the open wheel split he is usually right. But he is not an open wheel fan. He repeatedly admits his real love is motorcycle racing, preferably on dirt.

So while he acknowledges the passion of the fans on all sides of the open wheel split, he feels none of it himself and so the solutions seem overly simple to him. It also makes him less than informative or entertaining to passionate fans.

My quarrel with his article is that I fail to see his point. If street races don't produce good races then that can be fixed without dumping all street races. For all the examples of failed street races he gave you can also find layouts like Cleveland, St Pete, Melbourne, Surfers, and Edmonton that can produce great very challenging racing. Maybe its just me but Toronto and LB has had many good races and I never had much of a problem with Vancouver either but I'll put them aside. The point is it is possible and Champcar clearly has undertaken much thought about the layout and the cars to create a great on-street product.

Second, if he feels that racing in front of 200,000 fans that aren't likely to become lifelong fans what does he propose as an alternative? Racing in front of 5000 die hards at Laguna Seca? Sorry, that doesn't pay the bills. Why race in front of fans at all? Just set up a course on the salt flats and let em rip.

Granted I met many people at Cleveland and Toronto that did not follow the series closely year round, but many have been coming there year after year. Its part of their summer ritual. That sounds like devotion to me, but of a different sort. Would it be better if the also tuned in weekly to races and traveled to more than one? Sure, but first things first.

So I have limits to what I expect from DD but in this case I just think he has missed the point of having no point.

[pchall]

So I have limits to what I expect from DD but in this case I just think he has missed the point of having no point.

:rofl:

Age Despain another decade and he really will be the Brock Yates of tv motorsports coverage.

[Chief]

Mr. Despain appears to backpedal quite a bit. What's it gonna be....event fans or bad track?

I've seen poor races on great tracks with dismal attendance, and every other combination possible. Who gives a ****? 200,000 people attending a race in an area that previously didn't have a race (whether or where ever they held it) IS promoting racing as sport. That's a plus that apparently didn't hit Despain squarely on his anvil head. And all the while he dismissed the great racing because it was on a "temporary" circuit.

Despain is biased no matter how he wants to weasel around it. No one heard from him about the great racing, only the "pain in the ass" kind of way he reports about CCWS events, where ever they occur. When PT was on the show DD glowed with excitement about PT going to NASCAR. Despain is a shill of the highest order.

[FRANKY]

When PT was on the show DD glowed with excitement about PT going to NASCAR.

That's because PT rubbing fenders and knocking heads with the likes of Stewart and Harvick would generate so much buzz. It would put on a hell of a show, wouldn't it?

[RacinM3]

He also needs to stop harping on the fans for "not wanting to travel to Laguna Seca". As a motorbike racing fan, I have to assume he saw the crowd at Laguna a few weeks ago.

[Chief]

That's because PT rubbing fenders and knocking heads with the likes of Stewart and Harvick would generate so much buzz. It would put on a hell of a show, wouldn't it?

Of course it would...but PT rubbing wheels and side by siding with Justin Wilson (and others in the CCWS) at Edmonton barely drew Despain's attention from fat azzed Tony "Smoke" Stewart out of breath with a pack of Winston's hanging out of his mouth as he climbed a fence. He's more interested in fence-climbing gomers going in circles than racing, IMHO.

I will also toss in that Tony Stewart is USAC's "darling" and ticket to the NASCAR dance that DD loves so much (running in the dirt etc). Tony running the IRL and any accomplishments there are meaningless.